Where do you get your gear?

I'm considering upgrading to a Canon 5d 3. It's pretty expensive, so I'm looking for the best price. I'm just curious where y'all buy your camera bodies and lenses. Local shop? Online from a well known dealer like Amazon or B and H? Online from a lesser know dealer with lower price. I want to save money, but I'm concerned that some of these really good deals may not be legit, and it may not even be Canon...

I trust B&H and Adorama. I always give my local camera shop a call and many times they can match the price of the big stores in NY. Not always but it's worth the call to find out.

Good luck,

Steve

I echo Steve's response. B&H and Ado are both reliable. I bought my last camera from a local dealer. The price was the same and the dealer put in a few freebees. While I was there, a customer was having a problem with his Nikkor 300 mm lens. "Oh yeah, see [so&so] upstairs and they will take care of it." Having a local resource can be a real plus.

Online I order from B&H, Adorama, Amazon and J & R. The last thing I would do is order from one of the low price shops out of New York or New Jersey that sells 8gb memory cards for $149 and $100 for a Chinese knock off batteries.

I think you should support the place the knowledge is coming from. Most of the underwater retailers (like the ones that support and post on this site) are also selling at least some of the camera brands these days, why not at least give them a shot.

My standard procedure is to go online, do my research and print out a few prices from stores I would be prepared to buy from. I then take those print outs into the local shop and see what they have to say. If they are nice (i.e. polite, cheerful) and can price match down to online price + 10% then I will buy in store. If the price is more than 10% more, or if they are rude and I get a lecture about "supporting local businesses and the evils of the internet" I leave and buy online.

I think it's fair and reasonable to give the locals a chance. If they're offering similar prices I'll cheerfully pay for local service. If the service is rubbish, or the prices are too high.....I too am a local business, and I'd rather spend the difference in pricing on supporting myself.

It's worth noting that the current price of our 5DIII body only in the major camera shops in Australia is $3,800. For my last lens purchase, the lowest the local shop could do was $1200 (RRP $1300), whereas I landed the lens for $880. The distribution model is antiquated and ridiculous. Customers can buy online for cheaper than the store can get stock from the Australian distributor, and it's going to kill off our locals.